The many sides of him

Shel wasn’t quite in on the ground floor of Playboy, but he probably hit the first floor. He and Hugh Hefner had a lot in common - they both grew up in Chicago, they both served in the army, they were both cartoonists and they both loved women (more on that later). At the time, the magazine was so new that when Shel didn’t hear back from Hef within a month or so of dropping his cartoons off for review, he just assumed that the fledgling magazine had gone under. When he went back to pick up his portfolio, though, Hef personally told Shel that he was buying several cartoons and forked over a check right then and there. But the check was more to Shel than just money - it represented his ability to support himself on his talent, which his dad had mercilessly mocked him about for years. He cashed Hef’s check immediately, went home and threw the money down on his parents’ table and told them he was moving out and was going to support himself as a cartoonist.